consequently the institution of formal judicial investigations is impossible. Since the public prosecutor’s office has failed formally to dismiss the complainant’s criminal complaint, he cannot personally take over the prosecution of the case in his capacity of a “private prosecutor”. The complainant also alleges that the public prosecutors in Serbia and Montenegro seldom institute criminal proceedings against police officers accused of misconduct and delay the dismissal of complaints, sometimes by years, thereby denying the injured party the right to prosecute his/her own case. deliver a request for an interview to the complainant to discuss the contents of his complaint. As the complainant was never at home at the time of delivery, these requests were delivered to the complainant’s wife. The complainant failed to contact the Secretariat of Internal Affairs. 4.2 The State party submits that the Municipal State Prosecutor’s Office in Novi Sad received a report from the Secretariat of Internal Affairs of Novi Sad, on 2 October 1997, which confirmed that after checking its files, it was established that the complainant had not been brought to nor detained in any of its premises. The Secretariat of Internal Affairs provided the same information on 4 February 1999, at the request of the Municipal State Prosecutor’s Office of 23 December 1998. 3.4 The complainant claims a violation of articles 13 alone or read in connection with article 16 of the Convention, as despite exhausting all criminal domestic remedies, 54 months following the incident and almost 34 months after the submission of his criminal complaint he has received no redress for the violation of his rights. To date, the State party’s authorities have not even identified the police officer concerned.4 4.3 Finally, the State party submits that the complainant and two other persons had perpetrated 38 offences in the Czech Republic, for which they were sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment. The Municipal Court of Novi Sad ordered that the complainant’s name be placed on a list of wanted persons, to serve prison sentence N° I.K. 265/97 of 5 May 1998.5 It submits that, on 25 September 2002, the complainant was still in the Czech Republic.6 3.5 Article 14 is said to be violated since the complainant was denied a criminal remedy and has thus been barred from obtaining fair and adequate compensation in a civil lawsuit. The complainant explains that under domestic law, there are two different procedures, through which compensation for criminal offences may be pursued: by criminal proceedings under article 103 of the CPC following criminal proceedings, or/and by civil action for damages under articles 154 and 200 of the Law on Obligations. The first avenue was not an option, as no criminal proceedings were instituted and the second was not availed of by the complainant, as it is the practice of the State party’s courts to suspend civil proceedings for damages arising from criminal offences until prior completion of the respective criminal proceedings. Even if the complainant had attempted to avail of this recourse, he would have been prevented from pursuing it, as under articles 186 and 106 of the Civil Procedure Code he would have to identify the name of the respondent. Since the complainant to date remains unaware of the name of the officer against whom he is claiming violations of his rights the institution of a civil action would have been impossible. 5.1 On 25 November 2003, the complainant commented on the State party’s submission and argues that it suggests that as a convicted criminal he is not entitled to complain against police illtreatment, and that given the circumstances, the investigating authorities did everything to investigate the incident at issue and provide redress. He recalls that the authorities did not interview anyone connected with the incident and ignored the medical certificate documenting the injuries sustained by the complainant. It did not interview the complainant’s sister, who had nursed him after the incident, the doctor who examined him, the police officers on duty the day the incident occurred, or the complainant’s lawyers. Neither did they request the Czech authorities through inter-State legal assistance to interview the complainant. 5.2 He submits that apart from the State party’s failure to investigate the incident, it has failed to provide the Committee with a plausible alternative explanation as to how the victim’s injuries could have been inflicted other than through acts of its agents. In the complainant’s view, by failing seriously to contest the facts and/or the legal arguments put forward, the State party has in effect expressed its tacit, yet clear, acceptance of both.7 State party’s submission on admissibility and merits and complainant’s comments 4.1 On 14 January 2003, the State party provided its submission on the admissibility and merits of the complaint. It contests the complainant’s allegations and submits that police officers of the Secretariat of Internal Affairs in Novi Sad attempted three times to 5 No further information is provided on this conviction. It does not state for how long the complainant has been in the Czech Republic. 7 In this regard, he refers to decisions of the Human Rights Committee in particular communication N° 88/1981, 6 4 The complainant refers to communication N° 59/1996, Encarnación Blanco Abad v. Spain, Views adopted on 14 May 1998. 87